Just thought I'd share some of the items that my wife and I have collected. I never thought that we would be collecting old manuscripts and books, but here we are! Here are a few of the items we now have, and as time permits, I'll add more.

A Little History

Some of the old manuscripts that we've collected were created as far back as approximately 1250 AD. It was common practice to "write" or hand scribe on sheets of animal skin called "vellum". Until we started collecting these documents, I had no clue what vellum was. Here's an excerpt of the description:

"Medieval scribes usually wrote their Books of Hours on parchment or vellum, the supple, almost silky, skin of a calf or lamb, which had been carefully cleaned, thinned, scraped, and polished to a pearly and opaque, nearly white, color. A single Book of Hours uses eight to ten of these hides. The vellum used for the finest Books of Hours is nearly as thin as paper, and it was much more costly. Paper was a high-value commodity in 14th-century Europe, but vellum probably cost three to five times the price of paper."Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin

One side of a vellum is always darker than the other, as the "inside" side of the skin was harder to clean of flesh than the outer or "skin" side.

Pestilence, famine, war, and death: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were close companions to life in the 14th century. The Church was compromised by political corruption and worldliness, and the pope resided not in Rome, but at Avignon, where he remained a virtual pawn to the king of France. During this calamitous phase of European history, a devotional text called the Book of Hours emerged as a medieval bestseller.

A Book of Hours is a prayer book designed for laymen, a compendium of psalms, Bible verses, hymns, antiphons, and prayers for private devotional use. The book takes its name from a text called the Hours of the Virgin, a set of eight daily prayers meant to venerate the Virgin Mary. During a 250-year period beginning in the late 13th century, these little volumes—for they are almost always small enough to fit easily into the pocket of a modern jacket—were produced in greater number than any other single text.The Book of Hours first appeared as an identifiable class of text in the mid-13th century, became an item of conspicuous consumption in the 14th century, was mass-produced by a veritable army of scribes and illuminators in the 15th century, and was printed in hundreds of editions in the early 16th century.

​These Books of Hours were prayer books, but they were always much more than that, for they became something of a medieval status symbol for those wishing to join the ranks of the literate, well-to-do middle class. For much of its history, a Book of Hours was the only book a lay family was likely to possess, and most literate adults had learned to read from a Book of Hours. They were called "Primers" (sometimes "Prymers") in late Middle English, a word whose modern meaning—a book for teaching children to read—stems directly from one of their frequent uses in medieval Europe.

Glossary

Antiphonal - The book containing the principal music sung by the choir during the Divine Office.

Bifolium - A piece of parchment which is folded to create two leaves.

Binding - Animal skin, cloth or metal covering wooden boards that are sewn together with the vellum leaves at the spine.

Book of Hours - A very popular type of text during the Middle Ages used for private devotions. It contains a calendar as well as psalms, prayers, hymns and biblical readings for recitation during the eight canonical hours of the day, known as the Hours of the Virgin.

Border - The margin around the text, which is often illuminated with foliate designs

Breviary - A liturgical book used for the celebration of the Divine Office.

Choir Books - The general term for service books containing the music sung by the choir, e.g. Antiphonal and Gradual.

Codex - A collection of written pages stitched together along one edge, the book form still in use today.

Cutting - A section of a leaf, often containing illuminated initials which have been cut from a manuscript.

Decorated Initial - A painted initial with geometric or naturalistic designs. See also Historiated Initial, Inhabited Initial and Zoomorphic Initial.

Folio - A leaf of a manuscript that is numbered on only one side, usually the recto.

Book hand - A type of script common in many medieval manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries which consists of rectangular letter forms.

Hours of the Virgin - The core text of the Book of Hours containing reading and devotions to the Virgin Mary. The eight hours are Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.

Humanist Script - A type of script reminiscent of classical carved writing, noted for its clarity.

Inhabited Initial - An illuminated initial which contains a human or animal figure.

Leaf - A single page of a manuscript. The front surface, which appears on the right side of a two-page opening, is called the recto, and the back surface, which appears on the left side is called the verso. Leaves are most often written on vellum.

Miniature - An independent painting in a manuscript which generally illustrates the text. The name derives not from their relatively small size but from the Latin word minum, which is a red pigment used in paint.

Missal - The service book containing the texts necessary for the recitation of the Mass in Christian liturgy

Parchment - The material derived form animal skins upon which most western manuscripts were written before the 15th century.

Psalter - The Book of Psalms with a calendar and other devotional texts used in the Christian liturgy and for private devotions.

Rubric - Colored lines of writing (from the Latin rubrica meaning red), were most often, but not always written in red and served as instructional guides to the reader, providing descriptive headings and marking divisions in the text.

Scriptorium - The place in monasteries and churches where manuscripts were made.

Vellum - A very fine type of Parchment known for its supple character.

Versal - The enlarged first letter of a word marking the beginning of a section of text​

Documents

This is currently the 2nd oldest document we possess, and as of 2015, it is 565 years old. This is a leaf from a Book of Hours, circa 15th century, in Latin, on vellum, from the North of France (possibly Amiens?), and is approximately 153x100 mm (6"x4") in size. There are seventeen lines of monastic Gothic script in brown inks with numerous highly embossed capitals on grounds on red and blue with white tendrils. Line fillers have blue and red grounds with white tendrils and a highly embossed gold middle. It is a two sided leaf. It's hard to see the embossed gold in the pictures without the flash. Everything you see in the document was created by hand.The condition of this leaf is Fine [F]​The leaf reads: "Gloria Patri, et Filio: et Spiritui sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper: et in saecula saeculorum, Amen." "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost. Even as it was in the beginning, and now, and ever: and world without end. Amen."

This is a leaf of incunabula from the Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles) better known as The Nuremberg Chronicles. Next to Gutenberg's Bible, it is one of the best-documented early printed books and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text.

Written in 1491 by Hartmann Schedel, it is an illustrated Biblical paraphrase and world history. Johann Schonsperger printed this edition on February 1, 1497 in Augsburg. The small folio leaf measures 300 x 195 mm. (11.8"x7.7") in totality and contains various lines of Gothic type (4, 5, 9) printed multi-column format in Latin, copiously illustrated by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. All woodcuts contain contemporary hand coloring. Woodcuts depict second century Gnostics Cerdo, Marcion, & Valentinus as well as four of the Ante-Nicene Fathers Theophilus, Melito, Hippolytus, & Polycarp. The verso contains the same lines format & type. Woodcuts depict six second century personalities from the Virgin, Martyr Saint Praxedes to the great cartographer Ptolemy (Hain 14509; Goff S-308, Proctor 1786, Oates 946, BMC II 370) .

From Wikipedia...

The Nuremberg Chronicle is an illustrated biblical paraphrase and world history that follows the story of human history related in the Bible; it includes the histories of a number of important Western cities. Written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel, with a version in German, translation by Georg Alt, it appeared in 1493. It is one of the best-documented early printed books—an incunabulum —and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text.​Latin scholars refer to it as Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles) as this phrase appears in the index introduction of the Latin edition. English speakers have long referred to it as the Nuremberg Chronicle after the city in which it was published. German speakers refer to it as Die Schedelsche Weltchronik (Schedel's World History) in honour of its author.

The Chronicle was first published in Latin on 12 July 1493 in the city of Nuremberg. This was quickly followed by a German translation on 23 December 1493. An estimated 1400 to 1500 Latin and 700 to 1000 German copies were published. A document from 1509 records that 539 Latin versions and 60 German versions had not been sold. Approximately 400 Latin and 300 German copies survived into the twenty-first century.[5] The larger illustrations were also sold separately as prints, often hand-coloured in watercolour. Many copies of the book are also coloured, with varying degrees of skill; there were specialist shops for this. The colouring on some examples has been added much later, and some copies have been broken up for sale as decorative prints.

1503 - Late Medieval/Early Renaissance Incunable Illuminated Book of Hours on Vellum

This is a 500+ year old gorgeously illuminated gold burnished printed bifolium (2 connected leaves) manuscript leaf from a Book of Hours, namely the Hours of the Virgin, in Latin, printed on vellum with dozens of beautiful illuminated gold burnished letters with gorgeous blue and red block backgrounds, as well as various scenes, figures and designs printed in the borders, as shown. Based on characteristics, very likely printed by Theo. Kerver in Paris, France, circa 1503. Fine vellum leaves in excellent condition with minor traces of aging and a few small parts w/ marginal soiling; still, very well preserved. Pics taken with and without flash to show details; page is not yellowed. As shown, each separate leaf measures 5" x 3.25". Presented in single column, the bifolium remains in double page format with 26 line Latin text, again with metal cut illustrations. 8 inches by 3.5" each leaf (seven inches across both).

Antiphones

I'm combining three documents into this section, all very large pages from a class of documents called Antiphons. The quote below is from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Roman Church has been singing the "O" Antiphons since at least the eighth century. They are the antiphons that accompany the Magnificat canticle of Evening Prayer from December 17-23. They are a magnificent theology that uses ancient biblical imagery drawn from the messianic hopes of the Old Testament to proclaim the coming Christ as the fulfillment not only of Old Testament hopes, but present ones as well. Their repeated use of the imperative "Come!" embodies the longing of all for the Divine Messiah.

"The O Antiphons are Magnificat antiphons used at Vespers of the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. They are also used as the alleluia verses on the same days in the Catholic Mass.They are referred to as the "O Antiphons" because the title of each one begins with the interjection "O". Each antiphon is a name of Christ, one of his attributes mentioned in Scripture. They are:

​We currently have 3 pages, all original hand-scribed leaves from a Spanish manuscript Antiphonal on animal parchment (vellum). All three of these leaves are from the "Winter Volume" (pars hiemalis) which comprised the Offices of Advent, Christmastide, and Epiphany, circa 1525. They are all double sided documents and measure approximately 560 x 365 mm or 22 x 14 3/8”.

The first document has one illuminated initial in blue with red interior and exterior penwork extending into margin with intricate flourishing. This leaf continues the hymn O Adonai: “...in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti:veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.”, and translated reads: [O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses]... in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

The illuminated “O” begins the hymn: "O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem Gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare", which translated reads: "O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths, to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer".

I happened to find this Gregorian chant on Youtube! Enjoy!

The next leaf has one illuminated initial in red with violet interior and exterior penwork extending into margin with intricate flourishing; one illuminated blue initial with red interior and exterior penwork. This leaf continues part of the Office of Advent.

​The second illuminated “O” begins the hymn: “O Rex Gentium…” (O King of the Gentiles, yea, and the desire thereof, the Corner-stone that makest both one: come and save man…).

The last leaf contains one illuminated initial in red with violet interior and exterior penwork extending into margin with intricate flourishing.

The leaf contains most of the last line of "O Radix Jesse" (O Root of Jesse) "veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare." or "Come and deliver us, and delay no longer", which is sung on December 19th, and the opening of "O Clavis David" (O Key of David), which is sung on December 20th.

The illuminated "O" begins the hymn: O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel; qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis, translated to: "O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open: Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death."

I have been dealing in these for many years and wonder if you have purchased any of them in the past - if not you might be interested in what I have on offer - leaves from Antiphons, the 1503 Kerver Book of Hours, and some missal leaves and leaves from Psalters.
Happy Easter